"That was Then, This is Now"

• Bryon and Mark, the main characters of the book, are two best friends who now live with each other due to a drunken argument that killed both of Mark's parents. Bryon, a ladies man, is very tall, has dark hair and a muscular body. Mark, on the other hand, is rather short and has bright golden eyes and hair.

• The two young people Bryon meets at the hospital are Cathy, M&M's sister, who works at the cafe in the hospital and Mike Chambers, who was staying in the room across the hall from Bryon's mother.

• Bryon and Charlie have a close relationship that goes back to when Bryon dated Charlie's sister. After Bryon and Charlie's sister broke up, Bryon and Charlie remained good friends. Charlie allows Bryon and Mark into Charlie's bar, even though they are underage, as long as they pay Charlie the money he lent them.

• At the dance Angela, Bryon's ex-girlfriend, wanted to find someone who would agree to fight Curtis, and she did. Right before the guy was about to hit Curtis on the head with a beer bottle, Mark barged in and said they should fight fair. The fight did not end fair, however, the guy hit Mark on the head with a beer bottle making him unconscious and causing him to need stitches.

• During Bryon and Marks private conversation, Bryon begins to discover that Mark and him are growing up, and apart from each other. This greatly upsets Bryon. Bryon also becomes superstitious about Mark because of all the money he has been bringing home. Bryon also discovers unexpected things about Mark's mom.

• When Bryon and Mark were leaving Charlie's bar, they were followed by the Texans they had hustled that night. The Texans wanted to beat them up for taking all their money in the pool games. When Charlie saw this happening, he cut in and tried to break up the fight. When the Texans saw Charlie, one of the them shot Charlie right above his left eye, killing him. Bryon feels horrible, because it was their fault he died. Charlie had warned them in the bar to be careful, and they didn't listen. Mark, on the other hand, feels that Charlie didn't have to come save them, that was his choice, so it wasn't their fault

• Mark and Cathy are not very fond of each other at all. Since Mark and Cathy both have a special relationship with Bryon they are jealous of the time the other person spends with him.

• Mark cuts off all of Angels hair to get back at her for starting a fight at the dance and almost killing him.

• In chapter seven, Bryon discovers that Mark and him [[#|continue]] to grow apart, even more then when they had their private conversation about all the money Mark was bringing in.

• At Terry Jones' house Mark gets beat up by Angela's brothers for cutting all her hair off. Bryon's attitude changed in a very positive way. Instead of always wanting to get even, Bryon learns to move on from the past.

• In Chapter nine, M&M took a drug call LSD, which is known to give you major illusions. M&M had a vision that there were spiders eating away at his stomach. Bryon thinks of M&M as his little brother, and this makes Bryon very upset because he feels like he was a huge influence on M&M.

• Bryon finds drugs under Mark's mattress. He realizes that since Mark obviously wasn't using the drugs, he must be selling them and that is where he was getting all the extra money from.

• Bryon's relationship with all his friends changed greatly. He dumped Cathy because he lost feelings for her. Every time he tried to talk to M&M he felt so bad he didn't do anything about the drug. Bryon also doesn't want to hangout with anyone else and him and Mark aren't close anymore. His attitude toward life changed because his concentration in school was always distracted by something running through his head. Bryon has no emotions, he can't show hate for Curtis or love for Cathy.

• Bryon is very confused with everything going on. He feels as if he is All he asks himself is "what if?"
  All Bryon wants is to be a kid again and find the answers to his questions.

• This book was very interesting and detailed. It was one of those book where once you started to read it, you couldn't stop because something new happened on every page. This book taught me two things, change and not to get involved with drugs or drinking. Everyone changes as they get older. Some mature and turn into good people, but some don't. The people who don't are normally the ones who get involved with drinking and drugs, which will get you nowhere in life.